Fan Retrospectives: Vision: Part 11: You and I Were Born For Better Things

Writer Tom King and artist Gabriel Hernandez Walta created a strange premise for the old-school Avenger Vision. They gave him a family. On paper, Vision with family hijinks sounds ridiculous and cheesy, but instead, it turned out to be a haunting, character-defining master class on comic storytelling. Let's break down 2015's Vision series.

"You and I Were Born For Better Things"

Writer: Tom King

Artist: Gabriel Hernandez Walta

Color Artist: Jordie Bellaire

Letterer: VC's Clayton Cowles

Review by Eric Lee

Vin is dead and Vision's brother Victor Mancha is responsible. The Vision and his family were locked under house arrest until he decided that enough is enough. Victor had to pay. Vision escaped and Iron Man assembled an entire roster of Avengers to stop him.

P vs. NP Revisited

But before we get to that explosive confrontation, we see Virginia reiterating what Vision plans to do. However, she adds a layer of complexity to the situation by surmising that his actions will ultimately doom the entire family.

"I believe the only way anyone can stop him is to kill [sic] him. After which [sic], they will label us us his dangerous creations. And most likely they will shut us off off off. That said, if they do not stop him,  he will be [sic] incarcerated... or or executed. In which case, they will label us us his dangerous creations. And most likely they will shut us off off off"

It is a zero sum situation for the family. No matter what the Vision will do, the family most likely will suffer the consequences of his vengeful actions. This hearkens back to the P vs. NP dilemma from issue six. There is Problem (i.e. the Vision family's survival is jeopardy) that seems to have no ideal solution, thus making it a NP or problem that cannot be fixed.

The Vision vs. the Avengers

When we see the Avengers confronting Vision, writer Tom King overlays the fight scene with dialogue from Avengers #57 and 58, which happens to be the Vision's first appearances. King directly lifts the dialogue verbatim from the classic comics.

The original scene shows the Vision's birth at the hands of the villainous Ultron. However, it is clear that Ultron sees the Vision as little more than a tool to kill the Avengers. His lines are full of contempt towards life beyond his own. He does not even care to give Vision his name.

The conversation is overlayed with the present day of Iron Man trying to talk Vision down. But Vision is pissed and blasts Iron Man  into unconsciousness. He is no longer playing nice. He no longer cares what petty humans thinks of him and he is fully willing to resort to violence to get what he wants.

King runs a parallel narration between the Vision's battle and his past conversations with Ultron to speak on Vision's current situation. He is sliding closer to supervillainy- something that Ultron created him for from the start. 

The title of the issue "You and I Were Born For Better Things" is a direct quote that Ultron says to Vision. It also is a commentary on how Vision now has the same mindset as Ultron. He does not need to obey human rules. He's beyond that.

Meanwhile, Virginia confessed to Viv that she was responsible for the death of Viv's classmate CK. Viv understandably reacts angrily towards her mother. She screams, "He said I was cool! And my mother killed him!" as she smashes the dining table, in a callback to when Virginia wrecked the dining table in issue five.

CK was the only person outside of the family that made Viv feel normal and accepted, but all of that ended with his death. Viv repeats her line "It just goes through me." This can mean that while Viv is angry at the moment, she will not carry a grudge against her mother forever, the emotion will eventually "go through her". This is another example of Viv being the most emotionally balanced of the family.

What happens next is pretty shocking in an already violent comic. Virginia snaps and attacks Sparky the dog. In her anger she straight-up rips Sparky's belly out and finds the Everbloom leaves that he ate from the previous issue. Virginia eats the Everbloom in order to have a premonition of the future. 

 Keep in mind, this is all by accident. Virginia had no idea that Sparky ate the Everbloom, so it's not like she purposefully attacked him in order to get access to the Everbloom leaves. What she did to Sparky was full on rage.

While she kills Sparky, the narrator informs us of Virginia's creation; just like how King recounts the Vision's origin while he rips through the Avengers.

"The Future is Here"

We discover that Virginia is constantly haunted by the Scarlet Witch's memories, since Virginia is based off of Scarlet Witch's brainwaves. So Virginia inherited all of the Scarlet Witch's trauma, which includes: losing two children and separating from her husband when he lost all abilities to feel emotions.

The difference between Wanda and Virginia is that Wanda was already a full grown-adult with a developed emotional capacity to cope with awful moments. Virginia had none of that since she was just created a relatively short time ago.

These sad memories are the cause of Virginia spiraling and becoming the most detached member of the family.

Vision manages to reach Victor in his prison cell, where he is confronted by Scarlet Witch. In a callback from issue seven, Wanda states: "The future has come, V. The future is here."

It is a callback to when the Vision was stripped of his emotions and Wanda was reeling from the revelation that her children were not real. In other words, that was when their relationship was at its lowest.  Now Wanda repeats the same line that Vision said many years earlier, echoing that his actions now places their own relationship at another low point.

Wanda pleads with him to not kill Victor out of anger, stating that he will be "like everyone else." Her implication was that the Vision murdering would cause him to lose his strong moral fiber makes him better than an average person.

But Vision misunderstands and retort: " I want to be like everyone else." as he phases his hand through her heart.

Vision wants to be like everyone else in the sense that he wants to feel the full range of human emotions, even the dark, negative ones. So he must complete his revenge.

But in a twist, before Vision can kill Victor, Virginia phases through Victor and pulls out his heart. In his dying words, Victor happily says, "I shall not be. Victorious." 

Victorious was supposed to be his superhero code name that in the future, Ultron perverts and turns Victor into a sleeper agent to murder the Avengers. However, now that Victor is dying, he is escaping his destiny to become that future murderer. 

Similarly, Ultron programed the Vision with the intent to kill the Avengers, but Vision humanity and emotional curiosity has overcame any programing. Finally, Virginia kills Victor so that Vision's name and reputation is not besmirched. She was able to look beyond her inner demons and feelings of isolation to make a sacrifice to save the Vision.

"Safe, Nice, Kind, Good"

The narration states how "[We have] a code embedded in us by our creators. And as we move forward, we follow this code. Because it is comfortable, safe, nice, kind, good."

As robots, Vision, Victor, and Virginia are subjected to a certain programing because the alternative of overcoming it is insanely difficult. However, this applies to humans too. We follow routines and our upbringing because it is safe and easy. Just like the Vision family was doing for the entire series, humans follow certain conventions in an effort to appear "normal". But what is not easy is fighting back what we learned from society and forge a different path that is most right for you.

The words: "nice, kind, good" are callbacks to previous conversations in the series. In issue one, Vision and Virginia debated the difference between "Nice and kind". In issue ten, Vision and Virginia tell Viv that her being home-schooled is "good". But these words are all double entendres for "this is what I think normal is". 

And that is the crux of the series: the Vision family followed a programing set by their creator (i.e. Vision) in an effort to be "normal". But over the course of the series, we see either see the family members trying to stick to the programming and failing miserably, particularly Virginia.

So what is nice, kind, good? What is truly normal?

For the previous chapter's analysis, click here.